15 March 2017 – Today we are continuing our investigation of Stop #3 of the Bagnold Dune campaign. We start off with some MAHLI images of the APXS targets “Ripogenus” and “Spragueville” from yesterday. For these images, the MAHLI dust cover will stay closed. Then ChemCam will analyze the bedrock target “Holmes Hole” and the sand target “Spragueville”, with Mastcam support images. MAHLI will then come back to “Ripogenus” and “Spragueville” for some very close (2 cm and 1 cm, respectively) images, followed by some 25cm and 5cm images of the targets “Ash Island” and “Greenvale Cove”. APXS then will do a short analysis of “Ash Island” and a longer observation of “Greenvale Cove”. Also, as usual for our dune campaign stops, Mastcam will be taking change detection images throughout the day.

Meanwhile, many of us on the science team are busy preparing our posters and presentations for the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) which is next week!

Ryan Anderson is a planetary scientist and developer at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and a member of the ChemCam team on MSL.

Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.